Mercedes-Benz just pulled the covers off its Vision Iconic prototype at Shanghai Fashion Week, and it’s the first car to use the company’s new “solar paint” tech.
The automaker says this special coating is made of super-thin photovoltaic modules, only about 5 micrometers thick, that can be spread on the car body “like a wafer-thin paste.”
The paint itself uses nanoparticles that let 94% of sunlight pass through, with each module weighing just 50 grams per square meter — lighter and thinner than a human hair. Mercedes claims it hits around 20% efficiency across an 11-square-meter surface, about the size of a typical SUV.
According to the company, the coating can generate enough electricity to power 12,000 km of driving per year in Stuttgart or up to 20,000 km in Beijing. It can even charge the battery while the car’s off. Plus, it works with any paint color and skips silicon and rare earth materials entirely.
“Vision Iconic embodies our vision for the future of mobility,” said Markus Schäfer, from Mercedes-Benz’s board of management. “With innovations like neuromorphic computing, steer-by-wire steering, solar paint, and Level 4 autonomous driving, we’re setting new standards for the electric and digital era.”
The prototype also packs neuromorphic chips that cut data processing power use by 90%, and its steer-by-wire system ditches the traditional mechanical link between the wheel and front tires — freeing up space and simplifying the cabin design.
